Facing increasing competition from online home sharing companies, the chain is making strategic moves to ramp up its marketshare.

In a strategic move, Europe’s largest hotel group, AccorHotels, has announced that it has acquired onefinestay, a top of the line British home rental company. This move comes in the wake of increased competition from Airbnb, an online home-sharing company, as it tries to further expand its grip of the luxury market.

AccorHotels, the world’s fifth largest hotel group, is in the process of re-organising itself. The process has been started by its CEO, Sebastien Bazin.

It has disclosed that it has paid 148 million euros ($168.5 million) for onefinestay and has pledged to further invest 64 million so as to increase its growth worldwide.

Onefinestay was launched in London in 2010, has a portfolio of 2,600 properties in New York, London, Paris and Los Angeles, said AccorHotels in a statement.

AccorHotels plans on leveraging onefinestay so as to expand its operations in 40 new cities across the globe over a course of 5 years. It plans on increasing its revenues ten folds from its 2015 levels of 15 million pounds ($21.4 million) in 2015.

As per a statement by AccorHotels, onefinestay will remain as an independent business unit within its fold and will continue to be led by its co-founder Greg Marsh and his management team.

AccorHotel’s founder, Bazin has warned that the journey may not be easy as the business of traditional hotels is under increasing threat from booking sites such as Airbnb. His response to increased competition has been to go digial and as well as expand the range in its food and drink offerings.

Earlier in February AccorHotels had announced that it would acquire a 30% stake in an American marketplace for private rentals known as the Oasis Collections. It has also announced that it would acquire a 49% stake in Squarebreak, a French start-up offering high-end rentals in France.

Of late, AccorHotels has also been expanding its reach in the luxury hotel segment after agreeing to a deal for FRHI, the owner of luxury hotels such as London’s Savoy.

Categories: Entrepreneurship, Strategy